From Pines to Gems
by Daryl Ike
Summary: The Original Mystery Twins discover a portal leading to another universe, a Steven Universe
1. Serpent Island

The storm was brewing overhead. Stanford and Stanley struggled to stay aboard their ship, with the wind guiding them to a different path, to the rain thundering down on the twins. They had become soaked by the rain battering down on them and waves rocking the ship to and fro did not help as well. "Where are we now?", yelled Stan. Ford struggled to pull out his compass with one hand while the other was hooked around the mast. "19.7771° S and 57.7810° E", replied Ford struggling to read the compass, "There has to be somewhere were we can get to dry land". Ford ran to the ship's quarters and took a ruler to map out where the closest island was. He ran back up the steps, slipping on the wooden planks on the way. "I found an island close to us!", yelled Ford to Stan.

"That's great!", Stan yelled back, "What's it called?"

"Serpent Island!"

A few second later, a silhouette of the island appeared through the grey sheet of rain. Ford took another look at his anomaly tracker and confirmed this was one of the locations they were looking for. As the ship got closer to the island, a cave became visible. "We'll anchor the Stan of War in the cave", Ford said to Stan when he got back to him at the wheel.

The darkness tripled when the Stan of War II entered the cave and Stan lit more lanterns. "I can't believe you want these old pirate lanterns, why can't we just get regular lanterns?", Stan complained to Ford. "It came with the ship", replied Ford, "Why would I throw away good-working lanterns?". After Stan and Ford anchored the ship, they set off to the caverns of the cave. Jewels and minerals helped light the cavern as the twins trudged through it. There were rubies, granite, obsidian and possibly every other precious rock. Ford walked towards the rocks in the walls, admiring the view. "Ford, you might wanna see this", whispered Stan.

"What is it..."

It was the most strangest sight, there was a giant, dark green, dome shaped room with an alter is the middle made of a diamond with some sort of tall, muscular human guarding it. A series of steps lead down to the room and Stan and Ford stood at the first step in awe. They started walking down the steps, very slowly but Stan suddenly grabbed a hold of Ford's rain jacket. "Ford, we have absolutely have nothing we no idea what we're getting each other into right now", Stan whispered.

"Halt! Name your purpose for entering the Nephrite Caverns!", shouted the guard.

"We come in peace", said Ford, as he and his brother walked down the rest of the steps.

"I said name your purpose!", growled the guard. "I am Nephrite, the guard of White Diamond!", she took her staff and twisted it, dividing the staff into two glowing swords.

"I tried to be nice", Ford signed, he pulled out his universal pistol and fired. The beam of blue light from the triangular barrel struck through the chest of Nephrite. Within a millisecond, Nephrite exploded with a bang and a crackle that bounced off the cave. When the smoke cleared, a gem laid on the ground motionless. Stan walked over and picked up the gem that was practically the size of his palm.

"What the _hell_ just happen?", shouted Stan.

"She must've vanished," replied Ford "probably off to tell others of our arrival"

"That's our cue to get out of here", replied Stan.

"Wait, hang on a minute". Ford took a look at his watch again, the weirdness detector was going out of control. "The weirdness is being detected over here," said Ford "it's at the center of this diamond". Ford quickly took out his fourth journal and plotted down some notes.

"Hey Ford," said Stan "how much do you think this gem is worth?".

"That's nice, Stanley", replied Ford not even looking up from his journal.

"Hey C'mon, can you just look up for a second?", asked Stan impatiently.

"Stanley, your breaking my focus. There's something telling me to step into the center of the diamond", replied Ford.

"What, now the watch is trying to talk to you?", Stan said mockingly. Ford didn't reply to Stan's remarks, he was deep in a trance. He began to walk on the onto the diamond, ignoring his brother.

"Ford! For God's sake can you answer me?!" yelled Stan before the twins were engulfed in a pillar of light.


	2. Where Am I Now?

"Steven! We're back!" called Pearl.

"And we got you something, little man!" replied Amethyst.

The Crystal Gems waited for Steven to come running to them or a response back, but nothing happened.

"Steven?" called Pearl.

"He's probably with Connie" suggested Garnet.

"Without our permission?" yelled Pearl "He better be there or else!"

"Steven! You're not going to believe what me and Lapis found in the forest!" shouted Peridot with glee. Steven and Peridot have been walking in the forest for what seemed like a day, but Steven wanted to see what Peridot was getting so riled up about. Peridot lead Steven through a labyrinth of trees and came to leaning rocks surrounding the trees. The rocks were all pointed towards the back ofeach other. The rocks looped into a spiral, with a hole at the center of it.

"Hop in!" said Peridot after she jumped in the hole. "This hole is made perfect for my size!" giggled Peridot as she crawled through the cavern. The dark tunnel was cold from the many years of dirt coating the marble, making the tunnel icy cold.

"You okay back there?", asked Peridot.

"I'm fine", replied Steven trying not to look at Peridot's perked butt.

Light then became visible and the tunnel lead a to giant room in the shape of cylinder with a hole at the top which lit up the vast room. Hyroglifics were carved into the walls showing what appeared to be the construction of the portal.

"Thousands of years ago, it was rumored that The Diamonds were building a gateway to another universe. Now, those theories are now true!" , exclaimed Peridot.

"Does it work?", asked Steven.

"Well, of course not! This is thousands of years old and probably isn't working on both sides.", said Peridot "It would be a miracle if it acted up again."

Suddenly, if on cue, blinding light escaped from the warp pad and two men appeared.

"Guess miracles do happen", said Peridot still frozen from the aftermath.

The two men looked identical except that their wardrobes were different. The man on the left was in a plaid shirt with a fishing vest over it with a red beanie. The man on the right was wearing a red sweater with a yellow raincoat covering it. The twins looked at Steven and Peridot once they looked around confusingly.

"What happened? Ford, where did you bring us to?", panicked the twin with the beanie.

"I don't know," replied Ford "we must be in some sort of alien world."

"No, you're on Earth." said Steven.

"Then we must be in some sort of alternate universe." said Ford. He began walking off the warp pad and towards Steven and Peridot who started walking slowly backwards.

"Greetings, my name is Ford" said Ford to Steven bending down to be at his height "what universe is this? Do you name your universes like Rick or is this you're first time discovering one?" He held out his six-fingered hand in hope of a handshake but Steven hesitated for a few seconds.

"I'm Steven," replied Steven shaking Ford's hand "Wow! A six-fingered handshake! This is Peridot"

"Hello, Peridot!" said Ford as offered his hand to her for a handshake.

"Ummm, hello," replied Peridot taking Ford's index finger and imitating what Steven did "who are you supposed to be?"

Ford stood up and guided his twin over to and my brother, Stanley are on an expedition to discover the weirdness hotspot that has been on our radar for two years by now."

"Well I'm glad that you found what you're looking for, so I guess you have to go now right?" Peridot asked.

"Well no," responded Ford "we have to explore this new universe. Who knows what we'll find!"

There was a sound of water thrashing outside the dome that echoed throughout the room. Lapis flew in through the hole in the ceiling and spotted Ford and Stan.

"Who are you?" Lapis asked "and what are you doing here?"

"I am Ford and this is my brothers, Stanley" responded Ford as he took out his journal and began writing and drawing about the two gems. "Stanley, I hope you're comfortable here, because it's going to take a while to plot down new discoveries", said Ford excitedly.


	3. The Introduction

Ford, Stan, Steven, Peridot and Lapis walked through the forest back to the farmhouse. Stan looked at the Nephrite gem that Ford supposedly killed.

"Um, hey, little alien girl?" said Stan to Peridot "Do you know what this is? It was guarding the portal thing when we were in the other dimension."

Peridot glanced down at the gem and then looked back up at Stan. "Well you see, Stanley, that's a Nephrite gem who are mostly used for guarding under Diamond's possessions." explained Peridot "It's currently under it's sleeping stage where - "

"Yeah, never mind, not interested," replied Stan "you can talk to my bro here, he loves that."

"Oh, okay. You don't mind if I take this, right?" Peridot asked while pointing to the Nephrite.

"Sure" replied Stan. Peridot took the gem and bubbled it and walked farther behind the group to catch up to Ford.

"So, what would you like to know?" Peridot asked with a smile." "Everything" replied Ford "what's a 'sleeping stage'?" Ford asked as he took out a pen and his journal.

"A sleeping stage happens when the gem is poofed, as you definitely did here"she said showing him the bubbled gem. "This is where the gem can reconstruct their anatomy, it will take a few hours, but it's worth it"

Steven looked back at Ford and Peridot talking up a storm of gem anatomy and history. He looked back at Lapis who didn't look that pleased.

"What's wrong?" Steven asked her.

"Ever since we took the new ruby in, I've been extra cautious about new 'friends'" said Lapis.

"But they're human"

"I don't care, the last thing I want is for more people to take away the things I love"

"But why did you let them in anyway?" Steven asked. Lapis stopped dead in her tracks and her fists clenched then flew up into the air spraying mist into both Steven and Stan's face. "Where is she going?" Ford wondered out loud.

"Oh, don't worry, she'll be at the barn," replied Peridot "she just does that when she's angry"

"The barn?" Ford asked "Not some futuristic home?"

"That's right, Sixer!" Peridot replied "it's what Uncle gave us!"

Ford and Stan gazed upon the giant barn that was decorated in all sorts of random objects. "Wow!" said Stan "it looks like modern art"

"Wow thanks, Stan" said Peridot "I built it with my magnetic powers along with - "

"Wait a minute, you have magnetic powers?" exclaimed Ford.

"Steven!" screeched a voice from a few yards away. "Man, seagulls are pretty loud in this dimension" said Stan as he wiped his ears for any sign of blood. "That's not a seagull, that's Pearl!" Steven said. Three gems came running up to Steven, a thin, white gem, a plump,violet gem and a tall, dark red gem crowded around Steven.

"We've been looking for you all afternoon! Why didn't you leave a note that you where with Peridot?" said the thin one "who are these two old men?"

"I am Ford Pines" introduced Ford "and this he here is my twin brother, Stanley Pines"

"How's it hanging?" said Stan.

"We're from another universe," Ford explained "you're son and his companion, Peridot discovered us in an ancient temple"

The thin one looked confused then huddled with the two other gems whispering something and then facing Ford again with a half smile.

"I am Peridot," she said bowing to them.

"I'm Garnet, I don't usually bow to people I just met"

"And I'm Amethyst" shouted Amethyst.

"But together, we are the Crystal Gems," said Pearl striking a pose "and we're glad to invite you to the family"

* * *

Location: The Blue Oculus Galaxy (Known to Earth as NGC-3200)

Starship Number: 48816-HS-001

Hematite began running down the chrome hallway to White Diamond's throne room while other hematites were warning her to slow down. She came to a screeching halt before she collided with the door that looked like it was sculpted from ice. A tiny door opened from the giant door and a peridot stuck her head out from it. "White Diamond is currently busy at the moment" informed the pearl.

"But I need to speak with her highness White Diamond!" Hematite shouted, her voice echoing along the hallway "I am Hematite-13K6L Cut-9XA"

It took a second for the dimwitted pearl to cover up her mouth and fill the Hematite's eae s with apologies. The pearl quickly shut the little door and a second later the giant door opened. Hematite continued to make her way to White Diamond who was staring out through her window at the Blue Oculus Galaxy.

"Hematite-13K6L Cut-9XA of the Dimensional Radio Control Unit" said White Diamond in a booming voice.

Hematite quickly saluted to her Diamond. "My Diamond," she said "a force has just passed through the dimension pad"

White Diamond's head perked up and a smile spread across her face. "Show me" she said quietly.

Hematite's screen was opened and lifted the data up to her Diamond's hands. She read it closely and pulled up her intercom device. "Eclogite, set coordinates to Earth", she said. The starship made a major U-turn and headed to their next destination.

"I've been looking forward to this" said White Diamond to herself.


	4. Story of Percy

"And here is the inside the barn!" said Peridot.

The two twins entered into the barn and were greeted by Pumpkin who ran up to them jumping up and down.

"That's our pet, Pumpkin," explained Peridot "Steven made him"

"How can Steven do that? Isn't he a human?" asked Ford as he knelt down to pet Pumpkin.

Peridot stopped walking for a second. "Umm," she mumbled "questions after the tour"

"This over here is where me and my barnmate, Lapis create sculptures based off of the things we enjoy" said Peridot. "I this part of it?" asked Stan picking up a red book that looked similar to Ford's.

"Nooo! Don't read that!" yelled Peridot.

" 'Percy moved closer to Perrier, kissing his neck,' " said Stan out loud.

Peridot ran over to take her fanfiction out of his hands, trampling over Ford's feet on the way.

"Who's Percy?" asked Stan

"Who cares!" Peridot yelled up at Stan "I-It's not even mine anyway!" She ran out of the barn with the book still in her possession. She plopped herself down on the wall of the barn and hid the book in front of her blushing face.

"Ugh, what will Ford think of me now?" she mumbled to herself.

"Peridot," said Ford approaching her. His voice startled her and she stood up quickly.

"I know, I write absolute trash, okay?" she said quietly.

"No, Peridot, it's fine that you like a show" Ford said "in fact, do you know what old Ford did when he was younger?"

Peridot sat back down and leaned against the barn wall. "He wrote stories about his favorite characters like Johnny Quest and Space Ghost"

Peridot lifted her head up a bit. "Really?" Peridot asked. "Of course!" Ford laughed "a ton of fans want to give their own part of the story when there's a cliffhanger"

"Yeah, but mine's too...lewd" said Peridot.

"Oh," said Ford sitting next to her. The next few minutes was full of dead air as the grass and trees swayed in the wind.

"This is good atmosphere," said Ford "you must love living out here"

"Yeah," she responded "it's pretty nice"

"So, what is Steven supposed to be?" Ford asked.

"Well," said Peridot "he's the first half-gem"

"What are gems besides aliens?" he asked.

"There're like holograms but with mass," she explained "if we ever get shattered, we die, but if we don't, we are practically immortal"

"Hey, guys" said Garnet appearing in front of the two "Pearl told me to give this to you and your brother"

Garnet handed him a small necklace with a piece of paper rolled up like a tag that said, "Welcome to this Dimension"

"Thanks," Ford said "I don't know what to say"

Garnet lifted her glasses down and winked at him. "Garnet is a fusion," explained Peridot "it's where two gems collide together to form a stronger gem"

"Are you a fusion?" Ford asked.

"I am not," she said "if there was there would be two gems on my body. Also, I really don't think I'm ready"

"We could fuse" said Ford.

Peridot looked at Ford with confusion and amazement. "Umm, no," said Peridot "only gems can fuse"

"How can you fuse?" Ford asked as he pulled out his journal. "It's something to do with love," said Peridot "I really don't know how it works, but back at Homeworld it is considered a cheap tactic to make gems stronger"

"Maybe it's not just love but a relationship," suggested Ford "what about your friend, Lapis?"

"She's recovering from a fusion that didn't go too well," she said "Jasper, my old acquaintance"

"Who's Jasper?" Ford asked.

"You ask too many questions," responded Peridot "why not tell about your life?"

"Well, my whole life I have been fascinated with anomalies and paranormal things" he said "That's where I moved to a town called Gravity Falls where the weirdness levels were off the charts! That was when I awoke a being that had answers and was named Bill Cipher."

The story of Ford's adventures in the multiple dimensions continued on through the afternoon. Eventually the Crystal Gems were crowded around a campfire listening to Ford's tales.

Stan was by the campfire with on his own log. Amethyst walked by Stan with a giant branch in her two hands and threw it of the fire. The flames flew up higher than the barn itself and engulfed the branch.

"Amethyst!" shouted Pearl "we don't need that much firewood!"

"What can I say," said Amethyst shrugging "I like to watch stuff burn"

"Me and Stan will look after the fire" said Ford.

Amethyst layed her back on the log next to Stan. The two sat there half-listening to Ford's adventures. Soon, everyone became exhausted, the Crystal Gems began packing up their supplies and left for the warp pad. Ford called it a night and Peridot invited him and his brother to sleepover. Everyone left the fire except for Amethyst and Stan.

"You gotta pretty cool bro, Stan" said Amethyst.

"Uhh, thanks" said Stan.

"Are you anything like him?" she asked looking up at him. Stan hesitated, then responded "Well, I did bring him back into this universe single-handed-"

"Yeah, yeah," said Amethyst "what's another cool thing you did?"

"Well," said Stan "I did supply for a pug trafficking scheme" Amethyst burst out laughing so hard that rolled over on the grass and couldn't breath.

"What?!" Amethyst laughed "Wow! And I thought I was the weird one!"

"You? Weird?" Stan said "I can see that you're from space, but how are you the most weirdest?"

"I can shiftshape better than anybody out of the group" she replied "Can I show ya?"

"Sure..."

"Ok, here it goes!" Amethyst then started to light up with only her gem not shining. She began to grow taller until she reached the height of Stan. Finally, she stopped lighting up and Grunkle Stan was staring face to face at a purple Grunkle Stan. "Hey kids, I'm Grunkle Stan!" Amethyst imitated "Step right up to the Murder Shack!"

"That's funny," laughed Stan "but it's more like, Step right up to the Mystery Shack!"

"Step right up to the Mystery Shack!" Amethyst yelled "STEP RIGHT UP TO THE MYSTERY SHACK!"


	5. There's Something in the Forest

"Hey, Ford!" Steven called as he ran into the barn. Ford was in a hammock drawing the Nephrite gem in his journal.

"Oh hey, Steven, right?" Ford asked awkwardly. Steven laid Budwick's journal down on Ford's lap.

"Do you know anything about this journal?" Steven asked "it looks exactly like your journal that yiu write in"

Ford picked up the book and flipped through it's pages. He scanned the drawings of gem architecture and weapons.

"Well Steven," laughed Ford "there's nothing in here that looks familiar. There just happened to be someone who wanted to know more about the Gems. This is very good data about how the Gems lived, but-"

Ford stopped turning pages, his eyes where stuck on a single drawing. Steven tried to look over his shoulder to see what he was looking at what made him freeze. The heading of the drawing read "Mysterious Triangle Figure", the drawing was of a gray triangle with a singular eye and a top hat. It's only hand was reaching out as if for a handshake.

"Where did you find this?" Ford asked quietly.

"At the Beach City library" Steven said.

"I'm serious, Steven, where did you find this book" Ford's voice started to become agitated.

"The library, it was by Buddy Budwick, he was an author"

Ford took his pen and frantically crossed out the coordinates to the statue and tore out the page, crumpling it up.

"Wait!" Steven yelled "why did you do that?!"

"That was Bill Cipher's statue," Ford said "And I have no idea how it got to this dimension" He took the crumpled page and lit it on fire with a spare match.

"I'm sorry, Ford" Steven said. Ford took a knee to be at Steven's level.

"You don't have to be sorry Steven Universe," he said "Bill rakes over the minds of the weak-mined; I never want to put this on you or your family"


	6. Welcome Back

Location: Obsidian Galaxy (Known to Earth as NGC-469)

Planet: Homeworld

Docking Station: 5E16A

"This is the Granite Control Room," said Granite "what's your adentification number?"

"Ruby Facet-22R1G Cut-70AC" said the Ruby in a sweet voice. The elecrobay doors opened and her Roaming Eye entered the parked it with the other Roaming Eyes and walked out into the bustling station. There were other ships of all different colors and sizes.

"We need Jasper Facet-1R56R Cut-3HB to Room 1435 Elevation 25" the intercom read out loud. Jaspers waited in a single-file line for orders from their supreme Jasper. Giant robonoids were loaded onto gem warships while a Peridot stood off to the side. The Ruby ran through multiple green, hexagon-shaped hallways with gems walking in and out of automatic doors.

"There is no running of any kind in these hallways!" a working Peridot snapped.

"I'm sorry" the cheerful Ruby said, slowing down; but then began skipping through the hallway.

"Measly Ruby!" Peridot said to herself.

"Hold the elevator!" she sang. The rubies moved themselves out of the way to make room for the Ruby. She pressed the number of the floor she was on and the elevator moved along up.

"What are you so happy about?" asked an angry Ruby.

"I'm going to be the first Ruby to ever do something important for the Diamonds!" she said.

"What's that? scoffed the Ruby.

"Oh, nothing" the gem giggled and sprang out into her choosen floor. The halways where now wider, fewer gems were there, and a mysterious hum came from the green walls. There was only two doors foor each hallway, which nobody exited or entered. Ruby soon came to a wide door almost touching the walls. Ruby typed into the doorpad a series of numbers and an image of a Pearl appeared on the screen. "No gems are to be seeing Yellow Diamond at the momment" she informed.

"But I need to speak with Yellow Diamond!" Ruby complained.

"We would all like to see the Yellow Diamond" said the Pearl, smuggly. Pearl's face disappeared from the pad and Ruby was left with a white screen.

* * *

Ford dipped a beaker into the pond of green gloop, taking a sample. The strange goop then started to trail up the beaker to the rim. Frightened, Ford dropped the beaker and it landed in the pond. "Damn it," Ford said in frustration "now I have to go back to the barn and get another one!"

When he made it back to the barn it was night and nobody was there. "They're probably at Steven's house" Ford pondered outloud.

He walked all the way to the beach until he reached the house. He looked through the screen door and saw the Crystal Gems crying on the sofa. Stan was there with Amethyst trying to comfort her and Pumpkin was in Peridot's arms, worried.

"What's going on," Ford asked "what happened?"

Pearl looked up at Ford in tears. "Steven's been taken from us from Homeworld" Pearl said quietly. Stan ran over to his brother in tears as well.

"Where have you been? I was worried that you got carried off by space-people-that-aren't-real-people-but-rocks!"

"They're called Gems, Stanley" responded Ford "my walkie-talkie fell into green gloop, I couldn't contact you"

Garnet stood up and walked over to Ford. "This is not your fault, Stanley" she said "Through my future-vision, Steven is going to be fine"

"But what if there's a different outcome?!" Pearl yelled "We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

Ford sat down on the sofa and pondered for a few minutes. Then, Ford stood up instantly with his index finger in the air.

"We could teleport to them!" he exclaimed.


	7. Looks Like Homeworld

Flashes of blue light sprang up from the forest, that was illuminated from the night sky. Peridot was running down the slope with a box of random machinery in her magnetic grasp. She ran towards the warp pad which Stan and Ford came out of, which Steven named Pines' Portal.

"Here's the things you wanted, Ford!" Peridot yelled down to Ford through the skylight.

"That's great!" Ford said back. The warp pad edges were covered with wires connecting to an anthology of radios, alarm clocks, fax machines, and Peridot's tablet. Garnet was on a treadmill powering the whole contraption while Pearl was studying Ford's 3-D map of the observable galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.

"This one looks like it could be the Homeworld galaxy," said Pearl "but it could be the one next to it."

"Which ever one, tell me coordinates" said Ford still plugging in wires into the half-cut diamond.

"X, 115.0146, Y, 127.1100, Z, 16.1100" Pearl responded looking up from the map.

"Hopefully this works," Ford said "everybody onto the warp pad!". Steven ran up to Ford holding the Nephrite gem in his hands. "I wondered if you needed this" he said. Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and the rest of the gems crowded onto the warp pad. Almost instantly, light flew up from under them, and consumed the Crystal Gems.

* * *

Within half a second, Ford and Stan appeared on the warp pad in a dark, ancient structure. Bits of the sky was hard to make out overhead with the amount of collapsed pillars and statues. Ancient languages were carved into a few of the pillars, as well as hieroglyphics depicting the past or future.

"We made it here!" Stanford said out loud.

"Wait," said Stan looking around "where's everyone else?"

Stan was no dreaming, the ward pad only had them stationed on it. "This is impossible!" said Ford "Peridot and the others should be with us here!"

"Maybe the line was busy?" Stan said "The real question we should be asking is where we are". The twins proceeded to to walk through the burial ground of ancient Homeworld while stars up ahead dotted the night sky. They walked for several hours while Ford took millions of pictures of demolished history. Pink swords stuck out of the ground like tall grass, and surrounded magenta chariots. The pair walked out of the celler and through a tunnel that led them to the surface. The land looked like it was already forgotten about, like the Gems already moved onto a different planet. Ford then stopped in his tracks.

"Wait, do you hear that?" he said "It sounds like tiny screaming"

Stan stopped in his tracks and looked over at his brother. "I don't hear anything " he replied. Ford looked around the dark basin and started walking to the source of the chanting.

"Instead of going insane," said Stan "how about we go back to the portal thing and-"

As if Ford were in a classic showdown, he pulled out his universal pistol and fired into the night sky. The stratosphere suddenly tore open in a fash of light and rocks flew down in all directions.

"Stanley!" yelled Ford "Get back!" Ford jumped towards his brother, hopefully knock him out of the way. There was a flash of light then the loud crunching of a boulder. With a tear running down his face, Ford open his eyes to find himself resting on his brother's quickly beating chest. They both looked up and saw a green gem struggling to hold up a giant boulder above her head only to throw it in the opposite direction. The gem looked behind her and stared down at the cowarding twins. She then bent down and picked them up by their shirt collars towards her grimacing face.

"Killing you is my job, punks" said Nephrite as she pulled back her sword like she was executing a tree.

The two quickly slipped through their jackets that where cut in two by Nephrite's thin but firm sword and took off running.

"You two stop in the name of-wait," Nephrite looked around the dead earth aroun her now submerged in a fine yellow from the hole above.

"This isn't my post or planet" mumbled Nephrite as stood staring off into blank space. She took a seat on a boulder and rested her head on her chin.

"Is she okay?" Ford asked himself out loud "Shouldn't she be chasing after us?"

"She's probably giving us a head start" Stan replied climbing up the rocks "Why? Do you suddenly have feelings for her?"

"Of course not!" Ford quickly responded "It's just odd for someone like her to

do that"

Ford walked on down the rocks to Nephrite and stood a good distance in front of her. She then quickly lifted her head with her sword in her hand with the blade pointing up to the sky.

"I've broken my oath, my purpose to the Diamonds" she said close to tears "Either I'm shattered by Diamond or myself"

"No! Stop!" yelled Ford as he grabbed the end of the staff and tried to force it out of Nephrite's hands. He threw it across the sand and looked back at Nephrite. She looked back up at Ford and sighed.

"I don't have the courage to shatter myself" she said "Why did you stop me?"

"Well, uhh," Ford said "I don't really know, there's just something mysterious about the portal and your mission"

"What do you mean?" Nephrite asked.

"Well, hi!" Ford stuck out his hand "I'm Ford, and the guy who's trying to run away is my brother"

Nephrite got up and shook Ford's hand and looked at Stan struggling to climb up the rocks.

"Hey brother!" she yelled across the short basin "I'm Nephrite!"


	8. Concrete Facts

"Here in this court today, the Diamonds will decide upon who will acquire the planet, HL-D-8911 of the Lepidolite Galaxy" announced Yellow Pearl. The hardly lit room was illuminated by large holographs of the different planets and moons in the Lepidolite Galaxy and a few holoscreens were held in front of the associates of the Diamonds.

Blue Diamond arose from her throne to say her asseveration. "For someone who has never owned anything above a star cruiser," she paused for a moment to look at Yellow Diamond, who knew what she was going to say next "I believe that Pink Diamond should own this new blue planet" Private discussions rose up in the court while Pink Diamond jumped up from her throne in excitement.

"For me to own and harvest 30,000 colonies in just a galaxy that I have owned, I don't want one of our sistren out of the picture" Blue Diamond added and sat back down.

Yellow Diamond calmly arose from her throne. "Why should we give a faulted diamond or any gem of matter, a planet" she said "Doesn't she already have a large enough army?"

"It's only one planet, one of 100 Billion, this could be her test that she can handle such a responsibility" responded Blue Diamond.

"Yeah!" Pink Diamond chimed in "If I can sustain my own army, I can handle my own colony" Yellow Diamond lunged forward toward towards Pink that made Pink's guards pull out their swords and shields to defend their Diamond.

"Nobody," hissed Yellow "Interrupts our debate"

The guards stood stationary and held their swords prominently and made quick jabbing movements. Yellow looked down at them and was lightly tapped at the chin by the guard's sword, which was blurry at first, but the guard herself and weapon began to come into focus. Her shield was composed of a simple but robust design, something that resembled the certain carbon-based fungus that grew on her colonies if they weren't kept well before.

"You can sit down now, Yellow" Blue Diamond said while her hand was resting on her gem. Yellow swung her head over to Blue, then back to Pink. She walked backwards still keeping her eye on her, then sat back in her throne and Blue took her hand away from her gem and as did the associates of all the diamonds.

"So then," sighed Blue "lets have a vote, all in favor of Pink colonizing HL-D-8911 of the Lepidolite Galaxy, say 'I'" Blue, about half of her associates, Pink, her associates and a third of White Diamond's associates voted "I". The votes were then counted by Blue Pearl.

"The decision has been made," Blue Pearl said "Pink Diamond will take the planet and create her own colony" Yellow slumped in her throne and placed her palm on her forehead halfway through Blue Pearl's announcement, it was the worst news to her ears. The rest of the court clapped and approved of the news and Yellow Pearl finally announced the end of the court session. Pink got from her throne to be greeted by her sweet Pearl with pages and pages of information present on her new planet and behind her impatient Rose Quartz guards tried to get past her in order to protect their Diamond.

"Pink Diamond," chirped the Pearl "The gravity on this planet is almost identical to the gravity on Homeworld, so no need to change the architecture or technology of any sorts. There is a process of cooling periods and warming periods that change within 165 sunrises and-"

"Don't worry, Pearl!" laughed Pink Diamond "We can look over it on the ship"

"Sure, okay" laughed Pearl. As everyone headed for their ships, White Diamond walked over to Blue Diamond, whispered something into her ear and they both walked into a private discussion room as their associates boarded onto their ships. White looked around the room and placed her hand around the mic and collapsed her fingers around it.

"I thought I told you that I needed to colonize that planet in order to work on," White looked around the dark room the back to Blue "the Inter-dimensional Project"

"I'll applaud you for creating wormholes to get around our colonies faster," Blue said " but inter-dimensional travel is impossible, and it's not worth any gem's life"

"Just give me another 200 sunrises and I can make this equation possible, there just has to be that one spark-"

"I'm not giving you any more scientists on your foundation, White" responded Blue "that's final" She exited the room to her ship where her Pearl was waiting for her with White Diamond still in the room with a broken microphone in her hand.

* * *

"A shack of mystery huh?" said Nephrite half amused.

"Yeah, or what used to be the rest of my lab" Ford said glaring at Stan.

"Well what stuff does it have?" Nephrite asked "Not that I'm interested"

"Oh all sorts of amazing stuff!" Stan said "Skeletons, beasts, rocks painted gold - I mean, gold nuggets..."

Ford looked up at Nephrite as she was being half-interested by Stan's words. It's been a while since he saw her attack him and Stan on Earth that he never took the time to notice her features. Although she was tall and muscular, she had spiky, dark green hair that reached down to her mid torso. For her clothing, she wore a short, light green robe that was held together by a black belt with her gem as the buckle and dark green shorts.

"So, why are we here?" Nephrite asked.

"We're looking for Steven" Ford said "He's our friend back on Earth who got abducted and sent to this planet"

"Well, Homeworld has never abducted aliens unless they had something against them, like a crime has been committed" she explained "That's not my purpose though, it's royal guard, but I think I know where I can find him" She took a knee to the ground and looked up at the twins.

"What?" asked Stan

"Hop on my back," she said "we're heading up to the surface" Stan and Ford piled onto Nephrite's back and without warning, she sprung herself forward to the light escaping from the ceiling. The twins hung on for dear life as the hole was 180 feet off the ground, but they finally made it to the surface. They looked around and found themselves in an empty hall inside an abandoned building with the ceiling caved in. Skysrapers decorated in statues gem warriors towered over the three as they walked through the hall to a long bridge that also was sunk under the height of the structures. The sound of thunder could be heard before they came to bridge and it was then when the twins and Nephrite witnessed a sea of gamboge on the bridge beneath their bridge.

"What are those gems?" whispered Nephrite "How many rotations have I been gone?"

"Is that a year?" asked Stan

"What's a year?" asked Nephrite

"Those are Chrysoberyls, and what are you doing here unattended?" said a gem standing behind them. The three turned around and saw a medium-sized, light gray gem who carried a holoscreen and impatiently tapping her foot. "Which department are you apart of?" she snapped.

"White Diamond Guard," Nephrite said while she saluted to her Diamond "uh.. and these two are... barons"

The security gem looked up at Nephrite from her screen and looked down at it again with a smile on her face. "The White Diamond's guards have been replaced 1385 rotations ago with new gems. Plus, guards are supposed to be with their Diamonds protecting them, aren't they?" she asked

"Well..." said Nephrite "It's been some time" Ford currently had his hands buried in his face as Nephrite struggled to answer the security gem.

"Never mind, we'll just send you and the two "barons" to Protocol Center H1782" said the security gem "Entomo, redirect them to the nearest warp pad" A small robot hovered out of the gem's sleeve in four pieces then combined to become a chrome sphere with several spots of light on it's shell. "Thank you Concrete, I'll take it from here" spoke Entomo in a feminine voice. The robot guided them to a wrap pad on the other side of the bridge.

"Well, it's not threatening us" said Stan and ran in the opposite direction of the warp pad and to the ledge of the bridge. Entomo acted quickly and shot out a tractor beam, reeled Stan back in and continued to the warp pad. "Don't try to test me, clod" hissed Entomo "My systems can track the paths of a thing like you". In less than a second, the four were transported to the front of a three story tall dome with several large windows with many gems going leaving and entering. Nephrite and Ford were pushed along by their escort with Stan stiff in his tractor beam prison to the front desk while getting dirty looks from gems as they saw Ford and Stan's tattered clothing.

"Who are the gems today that need to be redirected to new job?" asked a Concrete gem who was behind the counter with a few hundred holoscreens between her and Entomo, Nephrite, Ford and Stan.

"Just this one" said Entomo nudging Nephrite closer to Concrete. The gem looked at the green gem and pointed a device at her gem which turned white for a second, leading Concrete to look at her holoscreen.

"Nephrite 1B2 Cut-3MC," spoke Concrete "Guard of the White Diamond, last used for use was 1385 rotations ago. Sent on a mission in the name of White Diamond, known skills: combat, gem healing and strategy" Nephrite waited patiently as Concrete typed up a few holopages and sent them to Entomo. "Nephrite 1B2 Cut-3MC will be sent to the Central Gem Archives as guard which suits her well." Concrete said to Entomo.

"And the two aliens?" the robot asked.

"Oh," Concrete thought out loud "send them to Cremation."


End file.
